ADAS Platform Customer Engineering Lead, Detroit

Qualcomm • Detroit, MI

3d • $168,500 - $252,700

About The Position

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is seeking a highly experienced ADAS Platform Customer Engineering Lead to provide technical and customer leadership for strategic automotive ADAS engagements in the Detroit area. This senior, customer-facing technical leadership position is responsible for driving adoption, integration, validation, and production deployment of Qualcomm ADAS compute platforms at automotive OEMs and Tier-1 partners.

The role provides senior technical and program leadership throughout the customer lifecycle, from RFI/RFQ and architecture definition through development, integration, validation, production launch, and post-production support. It requires system-level understanding across automotive compute hardware and software, operating systems, safety, security, camera and sensor processing, AI, middleware, vehicle interfaces, and system performance. The lead serves as a technical escalation point, coordinates distributed engineering teams, drives complex issues to closure, and communicates program status, risks, trade-offs, and decisions to customer and Qualcomm leadership.

The successful candidate will bring extensive automotive embedded-systems experience, including customer engineering, customer program management, or senior technical leadership supporting production ADAS programs. The role involves direct engagement with OEM and Tier-1 engineering leaders, architects, program managers, and platform teams, with continued technical involvement through production and critical debug or escalation situations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field and 8+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development, or related work experience; or a master's degree in one of these fields and 7+ years of such experience; or a PhD in one of these fields and 6+ years of such experience.
• 4+ years of experience with a programming language such as C, C++, Java, or Python.
• 4+ years of experience with debugging techniques.

Nice To Haves

• 20+ years of professional experience in automotive embedded systems, semiconductor platforms, ADAS, autonomous driving, automotive electronics, or closely related fields.
• Master's degree or equivalent advanced technical experience.
• 5+ years in customer engineering leadership, customer/OEM technical program management, ADAS platform engineering leadership, or technical leadership of an OEM or Tier-1 production ADAS program.
• Experience with Qualcomm Snapdragon automotive platforms or competing automotive compute platforms and ADAS/domain-controller SoCs.
• Experience supporting complex automotive products from architecture and development through production launch/SOP.
• Strong understanding of SoC-based embedded compute platforms and software architectures.
• Technical depth in several of the following: QNX, AUTOSAR, functional safety and ISO 26262, camera and image-processing pipelines, AI/ML compute and accelerators, ADAS sensing and sensor interfaces, hypervisors and multi-OS architectures, BSP/device drivers/platform software, system performance and optimization, or vehicle networks/interfaces and diagnostics.
• Experience leading complex, multi-team technical problem solving and customer escalations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including communicating sophisticated technical topics to senior customer and executive audiences.
• Direct experience working with a major automotive OEM or Tier-1 on an L2/L2+/L3 ADAS production program.
• Hands-on experience with Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride / Snapdragon Digital Chassis technologies or competing high-performance automotive SoCs.
• Experience with centralized compute, ADAS domain controllers, or emerging automotive E/E architectures.
• Experience with camera/radar-based ADAS architectures and vehicle integration.
• Experience with ASPICE, V-model development, safety case development, ASIL programs, and structured production-readiness processes.
• Experience with SIL/HIL, simulation/ReSim, vehicle validation, and performance/KPI-driven release qualification.
• Experience recovering complex programs or managing technically challenging production/customer escalations.
• Prior experience working directly with North American automotive OEM engineering organizations.
• Ability to work deeply with platform and ADAS architects, lead system-level discussions across technical domains, stay engaged through production, drive ambiguity to closure, represent Qualcomm with senior OEM leadership, translate customer problems into engineering priorities, and remain technically engaged during debug and escalation situations.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior program and technical interface for key Detroit-area OEM and Tier-1 ADAS customers.
• Build trusted relationships with customer engineering leaders, program managers, architects, and platform teams.
• Understand customer ADAS roadmaps, E/E architectures, compute requirements, and production constraints, and translate them into actionable engagements for Qualcomm engineering teams.
• Lead executive and technical customer reviews covering architecture, program status, technical risks, issue resolution, and production readiness.
• Act as the technical escalation leader for complex cross-functional customer issues.
• Lead customer deployment of advanced ADAS compute platforms using Qualcomm chipset and software products from architecture and platform evaluation through integration, validation, SOP, and post-production support.
• Provide system-level leadership across automotive compute architectures, operating systems, hypervisors, functional safety, security, camera and sensor processing, AI/ML acceleration, middleware, vehicle interfaces, boot, power and thermal management, memory, bandwidth, compute utilization, performance, diagnostics, and fault management.
• Understand interactions among SoC hardware, BSP/platform software, operating systems, middleware, perception workloads, and vehicle-level ADAS functionality.
• Provide technical leadership throughout the customer lifecycle, from RFI/RFQ and architecture definition through development, integration, validation, and production launch.
• Drive cross-functional issue resolution spanning silicon, hardware, platform software, operating systems, safety, security, camera, AI, and application teams.
• Establish technical priorities, dependencies, owners, and closure criteria for critical customer issues.
• Drive platform maturity and production readiness using SIL, HIL, simulation/ReSim, bench, and vehicle testing.
• Identify architectural and execution risks early and drive mitigation plans with customer and internal engineering organizations.
• Lead technical recovery efforts for critical programs and customer escalations when necessary.
• Coordinate large, geographically distributed engineering organizations supporting customer programs.
• Work with product management, systems engineering, SoC development, software, safety, security, AI, camera, and validation organizations.
• Communicate program status, technical risks, trade-offs, and required decisions clearly to executive audiences.

Benefits

• Competitive annual discretionary bonus program.
• Opportunity for annual RSU grants; employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for the annual bonus.
• Competitive benefits package designed to support employees at work, at home, and at play.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior